


I've Been Waiting

by KuraNova



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, doot doot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 06:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8880034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraNova/pseuds/KuraNova
Summary: Loghain is chosen to remain behind in the Fade during the battle at Adamant. Little does he know he has someone who has been very anxious to see him.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bainsidhe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bainsidhe/gifts).



> Part of the 2016 Thedas' Most Bangable secret Santa gift exchange.  
> Merry Christmas Bain!

It wasn’t with any sort of misplaced sense of heroism that he turned to face the Nightmare while the others escaped, but resolve. He’d lived a long time, perhaps longer than he rightly deserved, and so it was a natural choice for him to stay behind. Hawke was young yet, brash but capable, and the Inquisitor was nothing but a frightened little girl desperately trying to survive in a world that conspired against her at every turn.

She reminded him of Anora in a way. 

He had to fix this the only way he knew how. With a clear head he advanced on the Nightmare, knowing he would never see his comrades again, prepared to die. He would be a liar if he didn’t admit that he was at least a little afraid, but his purpose far outweighed his trepidation, and he was through allowing his fears to rule him. The past ten years had forced him to face his weaknesses and this, this fear he knew, was one of them. He was ready now, feeling as if all this time he was preparing for this moment.

“Ah, you’ve been deserted. How does it feel to taste what you’ve wrought on others? The army at Ostagar, perhaps, when all of those fools realized you had callously left them to die?”

The creature’s voice shook the ground and vibrated in the air. The sound pressed against his ears, a pressure that made him feel as if he was deep underwater. Undeterred, he gritted his teeth and swung his blade at the spider-like creature. 

“Get on with it!” he replied to the Nightmare. “I’ve no interest in your insipid blathering.”

The creature laughed at him and stomped its legs in an effort to squash him underfoot. Quite the poetic reversal of human and pest, he thought. He rolled out of the way as another stomp bore down in him and was able to deflect most of the landing with his sword. The Nightmare’s spindly appendage grated down the steel of his blade in a shower of sparks, jumping the cutting edge of the blade, skipping over the lip of his cuirass and sinking into the soft leather that covered his shoulder. Blood blossomed beneath his armor at the site of the wound. He’d sustained many injuries in his lifetime, and he knew at once that this was  _ too _ much. 

Pinned, he lifted his blade and hacked artlessly at the beast’s leg until it tore free from his shoulder. He saw something go with it. His armor, perhaps? His arm? He could feel nothing but searing pain at his left side and his mind was screaming at him to not look. Carefully, he adjusted his grip on his blade and used it to lever himself to his feet to face the Nightmare once more. 

_ Shit _

He could feel the cold sweat seep into his clothes and his heart pounding behind his ribs. There was a buzzing inside his head that grew steadily louder as he lifted his sword and was thrown off balance. That was right. He felt lighter on the left side now. 

“Apparently you’re brilliant commander.” The Nightmare teased. “Pity the one time you tried to rule, you failed so miserably. You had to be beaten, humiliated, lest you destroy your own country. You even doomed the Wardens by bringing the Inquisitor down on them. You destroy everything you touch.”

“Is that all you’ve got?”

“That depends on how long you stubbornly resist me,” it said.

He choked out a laugh, tasting blood in his mouth. “Better think of something original, then.” Did he say that? It felt like he had made the words, but his lips felt numb.

“Oooh, I would say that was very brave, but you and I both know how much of a coward you are. You couldn’t face the Archdemon, even for someone you professed to love.”

_ Quiet! _

He couldn’t discern the Nightmare’s body anymore as anything other than a dark shape swimming before him. Blindly, he struck out at the creature, satisfied when he heard its grating shriek echo into the nothingness.

Absently he wondered if this was how Moira felt at the end. Had she made peace with her impending death? Had she felt pain? Was she afraid to die?

He’d refrained from thinking too hard on it these past ten years, fearful of what examining them too closely might mean for him. It was selfish and stupid, but he had thought that purging thoughts of her from his mind had made him move past her death when deep down he knew he could never be rid of her.

He had said nothing of it at the time, of course, content to stew in his own feelings for the Warden that had spared his life. Yet, somehow she had known. He couldn’t recall what he had done to give himself away, reticent to mention anything comprised of deeper feeling than what people expected of him. He’d found security in that, and she had simply breezed through his carefully constructed defenses and gone straight to the heart of the matter.

_ Loghain? _

He pried his eyes open, unware that he had closed them, sure that he had heard her call to him. Yet above him the Nightmare swayed, twitching its spider-like maw with an eerie sort of patience. Was he on the ground again? Had he imagined rising to his feet?

_ Loghain? _

Again he heard her. He couldn’t be sure if he was hallucinating or not. She sounded so real.

“Loghain.”

Eyes burning, it hurt to glance up at the Nightmare when it spoke, though his body felt weightless and cold.

“Should I take this nightmare of a life from you?” it asked. “Do you want it to stop?”

He could scarcely remember what the creature had said, and yet he felt compelled to reply. All he could manage was a wet cough.

_ Yes _ , he thought.  _ Please. _

Something tickled his nose. 

“Get up, already.”

Waking felt like wading out of a muck-filled pond. It came slowly at first. In small increments he could begin to feel his fingers, all ten of them, as well as his arms and legs.

The tickling sensation came again, and this time he had just enough strength to smear his hand across his face like a bloody drunk.

He felt the answering chuff of laughter brush against his cheek. “Surely you haven’t grown so lazy in your old age?”

His mind began to sluggishly register his other senses. That familiar voice, the smell of green embrium, he knew them well.

“Well, I suppose it’s your turn to give it a try. I’ve been here all morning.”

Give what a try? All morning? All he could remember was a nightmare…

In a flat second he was being crushed by what felt like a hundred pounds of writhing muscle, a slick tongue slathering his face in Maker knew how many coats of drool. Loghain surged to wakefulness beneath the persistent bid for affection the mabari trampling him into the ground was making. He tried to sit up as it whined and wiggled, eventually managing to push the beast off of him while it leaned its entire body into resisting such a move. And they honestly thought  _ he _ was stubborn.

Loghain tried to calm the Mabari down, sinking his fingers into its fur and scratching it gently behind the ears. “You’d think you hadn’t been given a good scratch in years,” he chuckled to himself. The Mabari’s entire back end wiggled enthusiastically back and forth before it tossed its head straight into Loghain’s lap and, still vibrating with excitement, fixed him with a set of familiar eyes.

“Adalla?” 

The Mabari yipped happily, jumped up, and once again threw herself into Loghain’s chest. He couldn’t help but laugh,  _ actually laugh _ . Whether it was from joy or disbelief he couldn’t say, perhaps both. Regardless, he found himself hugging her to his chest like a long lost friend and sincerely praying to whatever existed out there that this wasn’t a dream.

“Oh I see. So the  _ dog _ gets a hug for being belligerent, but you’ve yet to notice me? It appears patience goes unrewarded” 

His head shot up at the sound of that familiar voice and stared in fixed disbelief at the woman sitting just beside him. “Moira”

She smiled back at him, bright eyes crinkling at the corners. “Should I toss myself into your lap too?”

“I certainly wouldn’t complain if you did.”

She fondly eyed the Mabari resting in his lap and hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe once Adalla is finished basking in the attention.”

Loghain was opposed to that idea, showing it by snaking out an arm to wrap around Moira’s waist and tug her to his side. “There is plenty of attention to go around.”

She tilted her head up to look at his face as she leaned into him. “I’ve been waiting a while for you.”

He lowered his head to brush his lips across the bridge of her nose. “I’ve been waiting too.”

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
